Hands-on teens help make youth center a success for more than 40 years

Kids from Town Shop Youth Center in Camillus work with horses at Sunshine Horses, a horse rescue organization at the New York State Fairgrounds. Katie McMahon leads a horse named Hoots out of the barn so his stall can be cleaned. David Lassman/The Post-Standard

By Dorothy Long
Contributing writer

For a typical suburban community, the town of Camillus has an a typical youth program that keeps teens busy.

A small town youth center that has been around for more than 40 years is unusual.

“When we started, the average center lasted two years,” said David Vermilya.

Vermilya and his wife, Cheryl, are co-directors of the Camillus Town Shop Youth Center.

Vermilya attributes the center’s long life to the tradition of putting the teens in leadership roles and giving them a voice in the major, as well as minor, decisions made over the years.

It started when a large group of young people approached the town board with a teen’s common complaint — especially in a small rural town. Unless you were involved in the school athletic program, there was nothing to do.

They wanted a place to go and meet friends in a social situation. The adults listened and set up the youth center in a closed clothing shop. The youth center took its name from the sign over the door, “The Town Shop.”

That’s where the Vermilyas came into the picture. Newlyweds, fresh out of Hobart College and living in Geneva, the couple applied for jobs as adult directors of the new youth center. The competition was stiff. There were at least eight other applicants.

“When we were interviewed there were 30 or 40 teens and a few adults and they all had an equal vote. We were astounded,” Vermilya said.

At 22, the Vermilyas felt at home with their new bosses/charges. “They could have been our friends or younger siblings,” Vermilya said.

Starting from scratch, the Vermilyas asked the youths what they wanted in the new center.

It was pretty basic, Vermilya said. “They wanted a turntable and a coffee maker. They didn’t want rock star or commercial posters. They wanted to decorate with their own artwork.”

Six months after opening, the Town Shop building was sold and they went looking for a new home.

“The town found five buildings that were possibilities,” Vermilya said. “We took the kids around and let them choose. The building the kids liked was my last choice. But it was the biggest. It needed a lot of work. The kids saw potential. I saw a lot of work. In hindsight, it was brilliant.”

Over time, the youth center evolved, trying to meet the needs of new generations of town youth.

The Town Shop is still supported by the community and receives a grant from the state Office of Children and Family Services. The annual operating budget is about $88,000.

There are more formal, planned events such as musical performances and open mike events presented by the high school poetry club.

Community service has become a big part of what the center does. It had an early recycling center before state law required recycling.

For nearly 20 years, groups of volunteers have worked at a Syracuse soup kitchen.

“These are kids from an affluent suburb,” Vermilya said. “They are meeting people from different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. They learn that all people have dignity. It lets them feel they make a difference.”

For eight years, the teens have worked with the Sunshine Horses rescue group that takes in horses no longer wanted at area racetracks, retrain them and adopt them out.

And, while in the early years the center was a place where teens hung out to relax, these days it also gets kids outdoors.

“Over the years we have accumulated equipment for outdoor activities,” Vermilya said. They have canoes, kayaks, backpacking equipment and cross country skis.

“I did research online that shows that if kids have the opportunity to take healthy risks they are unlikely to take unhealthy risks,” he said.

After 40 years, the Vermilyas certainly can’t still be considered peers of the teens that frequent the Town Shop. A few years ago they started seeing teens come in the Town Shop whose parents came in when they were teens. Now they are beginning to see a third generation.

And many of the teens grew up to become good friends as adults, Vermilya said.

But as the generations pass through the Town Shop, David said, the teens really haven’t changed.

“At the core, they have the same need to feel valued and part of the community and they need a place to gather,” he said.

The Town Shop offers them a place to drop in, to be creative, to do service for the community and to find adventure, he said.

It has made a good life for the Vermilyas, too.

“We’ve never considered doing something else,” he said. “Sometimes you are just lucky to find a career you fall in love with.”